Apps: izi-Applicant, Lux, Trisection

izi4u Software Solutions has releasedizi-Applicant 1.2, an update to its utility for managing data related to job applicnts. Version 1.2 adds the possibility to enter the applicants interview notes for each review session separately. Prices starting at $245. [Download - Classic, OS X] Sillysoft has released an update to Lux, its adaptation of the Risk board game. Version 2.2 brings network play enhancements, including the ability to have AI players in network games. Stability improvements (especially for MacOS 10.1 users) and a little speed increase, as well as an optional poof explosion are also present. Lux is $10 shareware, and comes with a 30 game trial period. [Download - 2.3MB] Stick Software today released version 1.0.1 of Trisection, fixing a compatibility problem with OS X 10.1.5 and earlier. Users who experienced problems with version 1.0 should download 1.0.1. Trisection is new puzzle game for Mac OS X that follows in the "grand tradition" of Tetris, involving fitting falling pieces into an existing matrix. "But in Trisection, you're matching up colors, not just completing rows." It is shareware, with a price of $15. [Download - 6.3MB]

MacPlay and Pangea release Enigmo

Enigmo is a new puzzle game developed by Pangea Software and distributed by MacPlay. It features 70 levels (50 regular and 20 "kid difficulty") of "mind-teasing fun" as well as an editor that allows players to create games they can share with friends. The goal of the game is to use a variety of bumpers, sliders, accelerators, and sponges to redirect falling drops of water, oil, and lava into their appropriate containers. Enigmo is $25.

MicroNet Technology introduces new line

MicroNet Technology today announced the introduction of the new Platinum Professional product family, available with FireWire800/ USB 2.0 or FireWire400/ USB 2.0 interface combinations. Featuring speeds exceeding 56MB/Sec from a single disk drive, fanless design for silent operation, sturdy aluminum casing, and increased cable length capability of 100 meters, these new storage powerhouses offer "performance and flexibility never before seen without expensive RAID controllers," according to the manufacturer. It is compatible with Mac OS 9/X and Windows.

Gluon updates XTension bundle, ProPack

Gluon's updated ProPack library of Quark XTensions now includes 16 professional-grade XTensions at the reduced price of $200 (previously $350). The new "turbo-charged" ProPack includes: QC (pre-flight utility), QC Collect (document collection with Merge collect), ProScale EV (resizing utility), Cropster (crops, guides, arrows, folds, etc.), Linkster (unlink and relink text), ProGrids & Guides (creating grids and managing guides), ProGreeker (disables copy/text while editing), IDropper (Copy attributes), Reporter (reporting), Outlines, ShapeMaker, SpotCheck (switch between Spot and Process color), Bump City (bumping and nudging), DragIn Powerful (drag & drop to create catalogs and contact sheets), NaviZoom Navigate.

UserCreations releases Spring 1.3

UserCreations today delivered Spring 1.3, a significant upgrade to its web-inspired universal canvas where users "interact naturally with singular, visual representations of the people, places, products, etc that define your life....'With new content like Movie, Food, and Music objects, direct canvas to canvas trading, and countless fit and finish improvements, UserCreations continues to deliver on the promise of a more human, less machine-like user experience.'" Spring includes direct canvas-to-canvas trading (via AIM), better Watson integration, drag & drop of rich and plain text, better browser and email client support, Safari bookmark integration, and other advanced features. Pricing is $22. A fully functional demo is available.

Aspyr sends Simcity 4 to duplication

Aspyr today announced that it has sent 4th generation game SimCity 4 to duplication. The game features new simulation and graphics engines, new regional game play and the new ability to track the lives of individual Sims as they go about their daily routine: "...players experience new God-like powers of creation as they lay the groundwork for their cities by molding mountains, carving valleys, seeding forests and laying rivers. With these new landscape creation features, players can now construct the most realistic metropolis imaginable. Each city a player creates becomes part of an ever-growing tapestry of municipalities that, once connected by transportation networks, share and compete for resources." The Mac OS X-only game is available for pre-order for $50.

AJA Video ships Io breakout box for FCP 4

AJA Video Systems has announced Io, the first uncompressed audio/video FireWire capture device for Final Cut Pro 4, is now shipping to select dealers and distributors. On Saturday, June 14, Io will be shown at participating Apple stores including SoHo, New York, and The Grove, Los Angeles, during Apple's 4@4 kick-off event to launch Final Cut Pro 4. The high-end, 8- or 10- bit broadcast video device allows a user to connect professional analog or digital audio/video to an Power Mac G4 or PowerBook G4 via a FireWire interface. Io supports 10-bit component and composite analog video, SDI digital video, multiple audio formats including balanced and unbalanced analog, AES/EBU digital, optical ADAT, optical S/PDIF, RS-422 machine control, and genlock. The $2,300 breakout box carries a three-year, unconditional warranty. (Earlier today, we noted that Apple began shipping Final Cut Pro 4 for Saturday delivery.)

Apps: WebCopier, Sound Recorder, ShadowCaster

WebCopier 1.1 is a multifunction offline browser designed to run under Mac OS X that copies websites and stores them locally, on your system. It follows links precisely, including JavaScript parsing and can download up to 100 files simultaneously. WebCopier supports proxy servers, support secure site access, and supports File and URL filters. Version 1.1 offers support for HTTPS and FTP protocols. Pricing starts at $30. [332KB] Monkeybread Software has released Sound Recorder v1.1, a simple sound recording application which uses QuickTime. Version 1.1 adds a level meter. It requires Mac OS X, Mac OS or Windows (and includes the source code). The application is freeware, but contributions are accepted through PayPal. [Classic, OSX] ALAP has released an update to its effects creation XTension for QuarkXPress, ShadowCaster 3.1. The update resolves a number of customer reported issues and includes the ability to add noise to both shadow and glow effects. Upgrades start at $50; the full application (for Quark Xpress 4/5) is $100. [5.1MB] Cedric Menard's Sofa 0.5.5, now in public beta, is a new application that controls iTunes and manage artwork on the desktop: "It plays slideshow inside the covers with transition effects and many more. Sofa was designed for Mac OS X only. It is freeware." phptunest 0.9 is an PHP script which parses iTunes Music Library files (XML) into web page (HTML). It allows you to customize the resulting HTML page using your own CSS styles, offers custom sorting of the song library, has custom column display, supports gzip compression, and supports MySQL for data storage (not required). Itis free. [8KB]

OWC debuts new 1.4GHz G4 upgrades

Other World Computing today announced the expansion of its Mercury Extreme product line to include G4/1.4-1.467GHz and G4/1.25-1.26GHz processor upgrades. OWC's Mercury Extreme processor upgrades are 'plug-and-play' solutions that do not use or require enabling software. Fully compatible with PowerMac G4 AGP-equipped models (350MHz to 1GHz), they act as replacements to the stock Apple G4 daughtercard and do not take up a separate PCI or AGP slot. Also included in each upgrade is a pre-installed, high-performance heat sink and an ultra-quiet cooling fan. Each unit comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, as well as a three-year limited warranty and an option for OWC to buy back the used processor being replaced. They are available immediately for $620 and $500, respectively.

Apple ships FCP 4 for Saturday delivery

Several MacNN readers report receiving confirmation notices from the Apple Store for Final Cut Pro 4, which is expected to available on June 14. Apple is offering free shipping (and Saturday-delivery) for orders placed from the Apple Store. The full version is $1000, while upgrades are $400.

Quark guarantees XPress 6 delivery by August

MacNN reader Adam Yellin (and others) report that Quark representatives are not supporting the "next week" ship date announced for Quark 6, as noted by Apple earlier this week: "I just spoke to Quark about ordering the Quark 6 update and was told that Apple should not have posted that Quark 6 will be released next week. They said only that it will be released before July 31 and would not guarantee anything earlier."

Apple being sued over \'Unix\' trademark

Apple is being sued by The Open Group, the San Francisco company that claims ownership of the Unix trademark, for using the term Unix in conjunction with its Mac OS X operating system without a license, reports c|net: "Apple has countersued, asking a judge to declare that the trademark is invalid, because the term Unix has become generic. Though initiated nearly 18 months ago, the case has not yet gone to trial. According to a motion filed with the court Tuesday, both companies want to have an exchange of factual documents completed by August, with a trial sought for February."

Glucose updates WeatherPop 1.8 utility

Glucose today updated WeatherPop, its menubar weather utility. Version 1.8 adds a new data source, usatoday.com as well as improvements to WeatherPop's user experience--to better communicate when its retrieving data or to indicate problems with the user's connection to the Internet. It also includes numerous bug fixes, including accuracy improvements and speed optimizations. WeatherPop is free, while the $8 shareware "Advance" version provides forecasts, a color icon, favorite locations, and other advanced features. A 14-day trial is available. [Std, Adv]

Verax soliciting MDD Power Mac feedback

Verax, makers of the MDD Silence Kits, is soliciting feedback from users of specific MDD Power Macs to solve a rare problem with its kits: "as you are probably aware, the Verax kit for the Mac has caused problems with some (actually very few) Macs. We would like to ask your users for assistance in solving this issue, which seems to affect only specific series of the MDD Macs....Our engineers worked overtime on this and we have a solution ready, but we need to test it now - and this is where the Mac community comes in. We can't get hold of the affected series of Macs anymore, therefore we'd like to ask all users to read the statement [and get back to us if applicable]."

DivX 5.0.6 fixes outstanding bugs in codec

DivXNetworks today announced the release of DivX 5.0.6. This new version of the DivX video format (in the form of a QuickTime codec) fixes several bugs, including one that prevented encoded video from playing in the VLC player. But most importantly, this version of DivX and DivX Pro includes a fix for the long-standing QuickTime issue that prevented the sound in AVI multimedia files with MP3 audio from playing properly. DivX is free, while the Pro version with a higher quality encoder/decoder, an MP3 encoder and MPEG-4 support is $20 (a 15-day trial is available). [Std, Pro]

AFP548.com releases free IPSec config util

AFP548.com has released VaporSec 1.0, a complete freeware IPSec configuration utility for Mac OS X. It uses the operating system's built-in capabilities to easily enable connections to a number of IPSec gateways and other OS X machines. It has support for X.509 certificates in addition to most any configuration option you can find in the racoon.conf file. The latest works with Check Point, SonicWall, Linksys, and Draytek routers and firewalls. The source code is available on request. [1.0MB]

Robust Digital Solutions slashes RAID prices

Robust Digital Solutions today announced 'deeply discounted' pricing on all rack mount models. The G-Series rack mount model is "now one of the industry's lowest priced" hardware-based RAID 5 solutions. At $4,000, "the G-Series 720 GB rack mount is a great value", says Diane Christ, Marketing Director of Robust Digital Solutions, "capacities of 480 GB and 360 GB are available at even lower prices." Another rack mount RAID system, the 2U high K6 model, received a price reduction as well. The K6 RAID is available in 360 GB, 480 GB, 720 GB and 1 TB capacities with list prices starting at $4,400.